Edelsten wins injunction against US woman

High profile businessman Geoffrey Edelsten has won an injunction preventing an American woman from disclosing certain information.

Details of the case are heavily suppressed, but delivering his judgment Victorian Supreme Court Justice David Beach said both Dr Edelsten and the New Jersey woman, Stacy da Silva, were unreliable witnesses.

In his opening paragraph Justice Beach said: "A little over 13 years ago, Brooking J commenced a judgment with the statement ‘Titus Oates was the greatest perjurer that ever lived’. Self-evidently, his honour was not the trial judge in the present proceeding."

Justice Beach said most of the evidence given by Ms da Silva was "demonstrably false and could not be believed", but he said that Dr Edelsten was "no more an impressive witness than Ms da Silva".

"Specifically, the way in which Dr Edelsten gave evidence was unsatisfactory," he said.

"On a number of occasions, there were inappropriately long pauses before an answer was given to a straightforward question that should have been capable of a ready answer."

Justice Beach said it appeared Dr Edelsten may have been contemplating which of a "selection of answers" to make.

"In summary, I found both Dr Edelsten and Ms da Silva to be unsatisfactory witnesses," he said.